The decayed shoes of a murdered woman sit as a permanent reminder of one of Essex's most vicious murders.

Camille Holland was shot in the head and left in a ditch in her home near Clavering in what has become known as one of the most intriguing and brutal murders in the county.

In 1898, the 56-year-old woman, who had been living in Elgin Crescent, London, was swept off her feet by Samuel Herbert Dougal, a 53-year-old 'serial womaniser' and former Sergeant Major of the Royal Engineers.

But, within weeks, the love-struck wealthy spinster had vanished.

Camille Holland

Four years later, 6,000 people made the trip to the isolated Moat Farm, Clavering, following reports that her body may be there.

Two weeks later her body was found, perhaps thanks to her beloved dog who was rumoured to have lead police to its owner.

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Miss Holland was last seen alive on May 19, 1899. She and Dougal had departed from their new home at Moat Farm, announcing that they were going on a shopping trip, but Dougal returned alone a couple of hours later, explaining that Camille had caught a train to London.

After a while, Miss Holland's whereabouts caused considerable suspicion among those who lived near Moat Farm - a property Camille herself had purchased only shortly before.

Dougal was reportedly an unsavoury character, who had twice been married before.

His first wife had died after a sudden illness. Within two months, Dougal had remarried but his second wife also died shortly after.

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When Miss Holland and Dougal had moved into Moat Farm, a servant girl called Florence apparently complained about Dougal's lecherous advances - allegations that caused Miss Holland and her new lover to fall out.

Within days, Miss Holland was missing. Dougal told Florence that Camille was on holiday and that she had left him in charge of the day-to-day running of the farm.

Samuel Herbert Dougal was known as a womaniser

But it is said that Dougal had a voracious sexual appetite and, over the next four years, he reportedly entertained a good number of mistresses at Moat Farm.

His behaviour, and the continued absence of Miss Holland, sent the rumour mill into overdrive, but Dougal seemed to make little effort to adjust his demeanour to stem the tide of suspicion that had been building up against him.

However one day, Dougal upset one mistress too many and it was she who contacted the police.

Acting on her information, Dougal was charged on March 18, 1903 with forging a cheque from Camille's bank account.

Further investigation proved he had transferred large sums of money from Camille's account into his own.

Detective Inspector Alfred John Marden was brought in to investigate the financial discrepancies and Camille's disappearance.

Through his career, Marden had taken part in a number of high profile murder cases. A search of the land around Moat Farm would lead to one more.

A drainage ditch at the farm held a gruesome secret. There, for the past four years, the body of Camille Holland had been hidden - with a bullet wound in her head. Legend has it that it was Camille's own dog, Jacko, who had led the police to her body.

Camille's body was badly decomposed, so much so that she could only be identified by the shoes she was wearing.

Both those and the stuffed remains of Jacko are now at Essex Police museum.

Jacko was Camille's devoted dog

Dougal was arrested and charged with her murder.

The science of forensics at the turn of the 20th Century was a far cry from the high tech methods employed today.

However, a gun maker and acknowleged expert from London, Mr Edwin Churchill, was frequently employed by Scotland Yard.

Churchill would buy sheep's heads from a butcher's shop next door to his gun shop in The Strand. Then he would fire bullets into the sheeps' heads and compare gunpowder marks, penetration and damage caused in order to determine whether wounds on human victims could have been self inflicted or not.

Churchill's evidence proved damning for Dougal. The gun expert was able to show that the bullet that killed Camille had been fired from a distance of six to 12 inches, and from a revolver that had later been recovered from within Moat Farm.

In June 1903, Dougal appeared before Mr Justice Wright at the Essex Summer Assizes at Chelmsford.

How Camille's grave used to be

His trial lasted just two days. Although he pleaded his innocence, the volume of evidence against him was overwhelming - to such a degree that the jury took just over an hour to find him guilty of Camille's murder.

At 8am on July 14, 1903, Dougal was led from his cell to the scaffold outside Springfield Gaol.

As the hangman's noose was placed around his neck Dougal admitted his guilt. Seconds later, the trapdoor opened and Dougal, hanging by the neck, was dead.

Dougal was buried within the prison grounds, only his initials and a number identifying his final resting place.

But Dougal's execution was not quite the end of the story.

Controversy followed when it was alleged his last moment confession had been badgered from him by an over-zealous chaplain.

As for Detective Inspector Alfred John Marden, the man whose investigation had led to Dougal's arrest, his glittering career ended ignominiously.

In 1912 he became the subject of an inquiry. He was suspended from duty while he was investigated for a series of misdemeanors going back to 1903 - some of which related to the Dougal case.